Sue Grafton’s Millhone Series

There is an old saying, “Always finish what you start.” And Sue Grafton seems to be on target with the release of V is for Vengeance in 2011 and the paperback version due out this October 30. Perhaps she will indeed finish; she only needs to write novels for W, X, Y, and Z. Unless…

Unless in Vengeance, Millhone is confronted with an evil programmer, intent on destroying the remains of the alphabet. Heck who needs the dictionary with texting. Alas, Millhone gets her man, but not before the alphabet, the very sinew of her existence, is destroyed by the worst hack ever perpetrated on the e-astute and e-ignorant alike. And so, with no town library left in which to do her case research (??), she snaps. She takes out her vengeance on Microsoft, Apple, GoDaddy, Intel and other high tech firms in the only way she knows how. She cancels their liability insurance, using her connections in the insurance industry. As a result, the major high tech firms are no longer protected from lawsuits and all go bankrupt. In the last chapter of Vengeance, Millhone muses what her life without W, X, Y, and Z will be like. Would she marry landlord Henry in W is for Wedding? Would Rosie’s food finally be recognized for the value that it truly is in Z is for Zagat?

Enough tongue in cheek.

In our club meetings we often wonder about how much of the author’s life gets projected onto the author’s characters. Well, Sue Grafton is going to tell all (or some) in another book projected for a January (2013) release called Kinsey & Me Stories. We’ll learn out Grafton’s relationship with her mother had a major impact on Kinsey, the woman whose parents were both killed in a car explosion when she was only five years old. Kinsey grew up fending for herself and is not one who easily builds relationships. We may learn more about the Grafton-Millhone connection very soon.

In the meantime, I thought I might use this post as an excuse to again share my only piece of fiction for which I received any recognition. Notice I didn’t say payment, unless a prize of a bagful of books is considered.

It was at the 2009 New England Crimebake Conference, when all 294 registered participants were invited to enter a Flash Fiction Contest. The key rules were: a crime story of no more than 150 words, using at least ten of the titles of Sue Grafton’s book series (Alibi, Burglar, Corpse, Deadbeat, Evidence, Fugitive, etc).

I was one of 46 people that submitted a piece, and one of three that won!

OK, here it is below, accompanied by one of my wife’s great photographs. How many Grafton title words can you find?

Above photo – by Ruth Goutal, 2009, All rights reserved.

“Deadbeat writer? Is that what you called me?” I had asked Jim as the group sat in silence. I had written a killer short story and all they had done was ridicule my gumshoe and my fugitives — hell, all my characters.

“Unrealistic and unbelievable,” they had called them. Jim had been the most blunt, but none of them were innocent.

Writers’ circle? More like a damned writers’ noose!

Was it later, or right then that homicide entered my mind? Had I given them enough evidence to realize then that they were all in peril? Obviously not; they were all easy quarries.

I doubt the five corpses will be found; the undertow had been perfect. In any case, my alibi was ironclad.

I won’t miss them at Crimebake this year. And finally, I have a novel, okay- five novels, that I can pitch.

 

* Corrected Sep 26, 2012. This sentence mistakenly had stated: “And Sue Grafton seems to be on target with the scheduled release of V is for Vengeance due out this October 30.”